Fluid laundry detergent products are well-known as a distinct consumer product category which has unique challenges associated with formulation and packaging. Such products commonly contain perfume, and are sold in packages such as bottles, from which the product is poured through a relatively wide-necked pouring spout. Consumers generally desire a clean and fresh odor whenever they open the package and smell the product, as well as at later points in their laundering experience such as a clean and fresh odor in the laundry room, and on laundered clothing.
Perfumed laundry detergent products such as heavy-duty liquid detergents continue to have many shortcomings. For example, perfumes are complex mixtures of costly ingredients and are often chemically reactive or incompatible with liquid laundry detergent products. This can adversely affect both the perfumes and the materials with which they interact. Further, these compatibility problems can be much greater than those encountered in the case of solid form detergents or with technically simpler cleaning products such as toilet bowl cleaners, automatic dishwashing products, shampoos or dishwashing agents. Shampoos and hand dishwashing products, in particular, are sold in packages having restricted orifices through which the products are squeezed, and therefore do not have a large opening through which a consumer can smell the product.
In contrast to solid form detergents, fluid detergent ingredients may contain certain components with undesirable odor and further, liquid laundry detergents contain a challenging array of adjuncts that make perfume stabilization difficult. Moreover a major fraction of the costly perfumes can be lost “down the drain” when the product is used to wash clothes in an automatic laundry washing machine. Finally, the detergent must have an overall perfume character that is acceptable to consumers.
What is therefore needed are laundry detergent products, especially pourable packaged heavy-duty liquid laundry detergents, that provide improved perfume impression on opening the package, improved efficiency of use of perfumery ingredients, better compatibility of perfume and detergent, better perfume impression at various points during use of the product and on the laundered textiles thereafter, the ability to incorporate a range of modern performance adjuncts, and the ability to effectively control any malodor of commonly available detergent materials.
These needs must be met in a manner consistent with satisfying consumers with respect to the olfactory character of perfumes that they seek in the specific context of fabric laundering, and without incurring manufacturing complexity increase as the components of package and detergent are assembled into the product that is to be sold.